The game feels like it climbs right out of a cheap fantasy novel.
SO WHY, do you ask, DOES IT ONLY GET A 6? Well I must concede that is only a matter of personal opinion. The game and fighters are heavily based on fantasy. While it can be said the general feel of them is generalized from real-world fighting techniques, such as the Western broad sword or the Eastern katana or even the Viking-ish pummel and axe, it still seems to me the brunt of the fighting system is simply based on the character's fantastical nature.
What I would have prefered, and what is not really found in Soul Calibur, is a fighting system much more representative of the weapon techniques and martial arts generally found in the real world. I would have liked that inspiration to go beyound the graphical nature of the character weapons themselves or the few moves that look like they may have come out from studying the various different weaponized (if you will) techniques from all over the world. In comparison to Tekken, for example, fighting in that game seems much more representative of real-word martial arts. I wish Soul Calibur had been more representative of real world weapon systems.
With that said, that is my only beef with the game. Otherwise, it plays great. It just feels like it comes out of a fantasy novel more than it does a real study of the different fighting styles accross the world.